Friday, 5 July 2013

“I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you
can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can
give.” - Julia Child

A nice Winter recipe to warm you up now that the temperature is
falling in the Southern Hemisphere. If you don't have time to make your own
gnocchi, you can buy fresh ones from your local deli.Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Leeks and SpinachIngredients -
Gnocchi450 g potatoes1 large egg,
lightly beaten1 tsp salt, or
more to tasteFreshly ground
white pepper, to tasteFreshly grated
nutmeg, to taste1 1/3 cups
flour, plus more for dusting1 tablespoon
olive oil

MethodPlace potatoes
in a large pot. Add water to cover by 5 cm. Bring to a boil and cook until
potatoes are tender when pierced with a skewer, about 40 minutes. Drain. When
cool enough to handle, peel and mash potatoes using a potato ricer. Set aside
on a baking sheet until completely cooled.

On a cool,
smooth work surface, gather potatoes into a mound, forming a well in the centre.
In a small bowl, stir together oil, egg, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour mixture
into well. Using both hands, work potatoes and egg mixture together, gradually
adding 1 cup of flour. Scrape dough from work surface with a knife as
necessary. This process should not take more than 10 minutes. The longer the
dough is worked, the more flour it will require and the heavier the dough will
become.

Dust hands, dough,
and work surface lightly with some of the remaining flour. Cut dough into 6
equal portions. Using both hands, roll each piece of dough into a rope 1 cm thick.
Continue dusting as long as dough feels sticky. Slice ropes at 1 cm intervals.
Indent each piece with thumb, the tines of a fork, or the back of a
semicircular grater to produce a ribbed effect.

MethodHeat the butter
in pan over medium heat until foaming. Add the gnocchi and cook, stirring, for
5-8 minutes or until the gnocchi are golden. Remove from pan, and keep warm, leaving
as much butter as you can in the pan.

Put oil in the pan
and heat. Add the leek, sauté until soft and add the spinach, tomatoes and
herbs. Stir until heated right through. Add enough vegetable stock to cover the
bottom of the pan and stir through the vegetables. Add salt and pepper as required.

Thursday, 4 July 2013

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” - Nelson Mandela

The Declaration of Independence, in U.S.A history, is the document
that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing the
separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It
explained why the Congress on July 2 “unanimously” by the votes of 12 colonies
(with New York abstaining) had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of
right ought to be Free and Independent States.” Accordingly, the day on which
final separation was officially voted was July 2, although the 4th, the day on
which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, has always been celebrated
in the United States as the great national holiday, the Fourth of July, or
Independence Day.

On April 19, 1775, when armed conflict began between Britain and the
13 colonies (the nucleus of the future United States), the Americans claimed
that they sought only their rights within the British Empire. At that time few
of the colonists consciously desired to separate from Britain. As the American
Revolution proceeded during 1775–76 and Britain undertook to assert its
sovereignty by means of large armed forces, making only a gesture toward conciliation,
the majority of Americans increasingly came to believe that they must secure their
rights outside the empire.

The losses and restrictions that came from the war greatly widened
the breach between the colonies and the mother country; moreover, it was
necessary to assert independence in order to secure as much French aid as
possible. On April 12, 1776, the
revolutionary convention of North Carolina specifically authorised its
delegates in Congress to vote for independence. On May 15 the Virginia
convention instructed its deputies to offer the motion, which was brought
forward in the Congress by Richard Henry Lee on June 7. By that time the
Congress had already taken long steps toward severing ties with Britain. It had
denied Parliamentary sovereignty over the colonies as early as December 6,
1775, and it had declared on May 10, 1776, that the authority of the king ought
to be “totally suppressed,” advising all the several colonies to establish
governments of their own choice.

The passage of Lee’s resolution was delayed for several reasons.
Some of the delegates had not yet received authorization to vote for
separation; a few were opposed to taking the final step; and several men, among
them John Dickinson, believed that the formation of a central government,
together with attempts to secure foreign aid, should precede it. However, a
committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger
Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston was promptly chosen on June 11 to prepare a
statement justifying the decision to assert independence, should it be taken.
The document was prepared, and on July 1 nine delegations voted for separation,
despite warm opposition on the part of Dickinson. On the following day at the
Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, with the New
York delegation abstaining only because it lacked permission to act, the Lee
resolution was voted on and endorsed.

The convention of New York gave its consent on July 9, and the New
York delegates voted affirmatively on July 15. On July 19 the Congress ordered
the document to be engrossed as “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen
United States of America.” It was accordingly put on parchment, probably by
Timothy Matlack of Philadelphia. Members of the Congress present on August 2
affixed their signatures to this parchment copy on that day, and others later.
The last signer was Thomas McKean of Delaware, whose name was not placed on the
document before 1777.

The Declaration of Independence was written largely by Thomas
Jefferson, who had displayed talent as a political philosopher and polemicist
in his “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”, published in 1774. At
the request of his fellow committee members he wrote the first draft. The
members of the committee made a number of merely semantic changes, and they
also expanded somewhat the list of charges against the king. The Congress made
more substantial changes, deleting a condemnation of the British people, a
reference to “Scotch & foreign mercenaries” (there were Scots in the
Congress), and a denunciation of the African slave trade (this being offensive
to some Southern and New England delegates).

The Declaration of Independence has also been a source of
inspiration outside the United States. It encouraged Antonio de Nariño and
Francisco de Miranda to strive toward overthrowing the Spanish empire in South
America, and it was quoted with enthusiasm by the Marquis de Mirabeau during
the French Revolution. It remains a great historical landmark in that it
contained the first formal assertion by a whole people of their right to a
government of their own choice. What Locke had contended for as an individual,
the Americans proclaimed as a body politic; moreover, they made good the
argument by force of arms.

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

“More than 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger; and
790 million of them live in the Third World.” - Fidel Castro

Magpie Tales has provided a photograph by Yohan Musin,
a talented artist to act as inspiration for followers of her blog. Here is my
contribution (including my edit to the photo) to the creative writing challenge:The Solution

A promise, a vision, a solution –All preferable toThe present, the reality, the misery.

Her nails, her hair, her clothesAll ache, due toThe never-ending work, the drudgery, the
need.

In the village, in the fields, in the house,A constant demand forHer contribution, her labour, her input.

Her sex, her caste, her ageAll conspire toDiscrimination, prejudice, unfairness.

A city, a job, a new start,Will they make possibleThe promise, the vision, the solution?

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Brisbane
is the port and the capital city of Queensland, Australia, and Australia’s
third largest city. It lies astride the Brisbane River on the southern slopes
of the Taylor Range, 19 km above the river’s mouth at Moreton Bay. The site,
first explored in 1823 by John Oxley, was occupied in 1824 by a penal colony,
which had moved from Redcliffe 35 km northeast. The name honours Sir Thomas
Brisbane, former governor of New South Wales, when the convict settlement was
declared a town in 1834. Proclaimed a municipality in 1859, it became the
capital of newly independent Queensland that same year. Gazetted a city in
1902, it was joined during the 1920s with South Brisbane to form the City of
Greater Brisbane. Its municipal government, headed by a lord mayor, holds very
broad powers. The Brisbane statistical division, including the cities of
Ipswich and Redcliffe, has close economic and social ties to the city.

Brisbane is the hub of many rail lines and highways,
which bring produce from a vast agricultural hinterland stretching west to the
Eastern Highlands, the Darling Downs, and beyond. The city’s port, which can
accommodate ships of 34,000 tons, exports wool, grains, dairy products, meat,
sugar, preserved foods, and mineral sands. The metropolitan area, also
industrialised with more than half of the state’s manufacturing capacity, has
heavy and light engineering works, food-processing plants, shipyards, oil refineries,
sawmills, and factories producing rubber goods, automobiles, cement, and
fertiliser. The city, the halves of which are connected by several bridges and
ferries, is the site of the University of Queensland at St. Lucia (1909),
Griffith University (1971), Parliament House (1869), the state museum (1855)
and art gallery (1895), Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, and many parks
and gardens. Water is supplied from Lake Manchester, the Mount Crosby Weir, and
the Somerset Dam. Oil is piped from wells at Moonie (west) and at Roma
(northwest), which also supplies natural gas. Pop. (1996) city, 848,741;
Brisbane Statistical Division, 1,488,900; (2001) Brisbane Statistical Division,
1,627,535.

I have been extremely busy with work, hence this belated Movie Monday
review. Most of my days have been full of meetings and I take lots of work to catch
up on at home, and as if that weren’t enough, I am getting ready to travel
again. Nevertheless, we did manage to watch a movie at the weekend, so I shall
review that.

It was Ann Hunter’s 2006 thriller “Irresistible” starring Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill and Emily Blunt. First, as it was an
Australian film and made in Melbourne, it was good to see our hometown
featured. We recognised the following: Citylink, Docklands, Immigration Museum,
Riva Bar and Restaurant, St. Kilda, Williamstown Cemetery and Williamstown.

The plot revolves around Sophie Hartley (Sarandon) who is convinced
that she is being stalked. She becomes increasingly certain that her husband’s
(Neill) beautiful co-worker, Mara (Blunt), wants to take from her, her
children, her husband and her life. However, as Sophie has been having some
difficult times and she is a little fragile, no one believes her. Forced to
prove her sanity, Sophie grows increasingly paranoid. But is she imagining
things or is something really nasty happening? Sophie becomes completely caught
up in her obsession, turning stalker herself - and makes a discovery more frightening
than her worst fears…

The theme of the film is secrets in relationships, trust, love and
family ties. Unfortunately the plot is rather clumsy and it sometimes seems a
little slap-dash, or improvisational in nature. Apparently, Susan Sarandon
worked with the director/scriptwriter Ann Hunter for six months to tweak the
script to Sarandon’s standards before they even shot the first scene. The film is
saved, however, by the good performances of the lead actors and the supporting
role work by the children and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, who plays a cameo role as
Sophie’s father.

The movie labours a few points, with many twists and turns, and a final twist on a twist
is unnecessary and looks like a cheap horror movie that prepares the ground or
a sequel. The title is quite misleading and has nothing to do with the plot. In
Portuguese the movie was released as: “Identidade Roubada” – Stolen Identity,
which is a more reasonable title on many levels.

Don’t go out of your way to find this film and watch it, it’s the
sort of thing that you may watch if you’re lazing around on a \Sunday afternoon,
it’s raining and it comes on TV after you’ve made a bowl of popcorn. Watch it
to pass time…

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Evelyn Pickering (1855-1919) was born in London, the daughter of
upper-middle class parents. Her father was Percival Pickering QC, the Recorder
of Pontefract. Her mother was Anna Maria Wilhelmina Spencer-Stanhope, the
sister of the artist John Rodham Spencer-Stanhope (a painter within the circle
of later Pre-Raphaelites who took their inspiration from the more romantic
paintings of Rossetti and Burne-Jones), and a descendant of Coke of Norfolk who
was an Earl of Leicester. Evelyn was homeschooled and started drawing lessons
when she was 15. On the morning of her seventeenth birthday, Evelyn recorded in
her diary, “Art is eternal, but life is short... I will make up for it now, I
have not a moment to lose.”

Her early ambition to paint was discouraged by her parents but later
she was permitted to become a student at the Slade School and in due course to
study in Italy, in Rome and in Florence. Her uncle, Roddam Spencer Stanhope,
was a great influence to her works. Evelyn often visited him in Florence where
he lived. This also enabled her to study the great artists of the Renaissance;
she was particularly fond of the works of Botticelli. This influenced her to
move away from the classical subjects favoured by the Slade school and to make
her own style. As a young woman she exhibited “Ariadne in Naxos” at the first Exhibition
of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877.

Her mature style, which is distinguished by a precision of detail
and a fondness for mythological subjects, was derived in part from her first
artistic mentor, her uncle. She was also profoundly influenced by Edward
Burne-Jones who was a close friend. Her painting was admired by a circle of
fellow-artists. William Blake Richmond said of her: “Her industry was
astonishing, and the amount which she achieved was surprising, especially
considering the infinite care with which she studied every detail…” George
Frederic Watts pronounced her “…the first woman-artist of the day – if not of
all time.” Evelyn Pickering married the ceramicist William De Morgan in 1887
and lived with him in London until his death in 1917. She died two years later.

The painting above is “Nyx and Hypnos” of 1878 shows well de Morgan’s
mythological genre. In Greek mythology, Hypnos (Ὕπνος) was the personification
of sleep; the Roman equivalent was known as Somnus. His twin was Thánatos (Θάνατος – death);
their mother was the goddess Nyx (Νυξ – night). Hypnos’ palace was a dark cave where
the sun never shone and perpetual night ruled. At the entrance were a number of
poppies and other hypnagogic plants and through this cave flowed Lethe, the
river of forgetfulness.

Hypnos’s three sons or brothers represented things that occur in
dreams (the Oneiroi). Morpheus (from which “morphine” is derived), Phobetor (“one
who causes fear”) and Phantasos (from which “fantasy” is derived). Endymion,
sentenced by Zeus to eternal sleep, received the power to sleep with his eyes
open from Hypnos in order to constantly watch his beloved moon goddess, Selene.
But according to the poet Licymnius of Chios, Hypnos, in awe of Endymion’s
beauty, causes him to sleep with his eyes open, so he can fully admire his
face.

In art, Hypnos was portrayed as a naked youthful man, sometimes with
a beard, and wings attached to his head. He is sometimes shown as a man asleep
on a bed of feathers with black curtains about him. Morpheus is his chief
minister and prevents noises from waking him. In Sparta, the image of Hypnos
was always put near that of death.

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WELCOME

Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger

I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.

I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.